What Is a Medical Cart?

A medical cart is a wheeled workstation that carries equipment to the patient instead of bringing the patient to the equipment. At its simplest it is a height-adjustable column on a castor base, with a work surface, a monitor arm and a keyboard tray. More capable carts add a computer, a battery, storage drawers and specialist devices such as barcode scanners, cameras or video recorders.

Nurses and doctors use carts to update electronic records at the bedside, give medication, run remote consultations and capture video during procedures. Because the cart moves between patients and sits inside the patient environment, it has to be quiet, easy to clean and electrically safe, which shapes almost every hardware choice on it.

In hospitals, a cart built around a computer is often called a computer on wheels (COW) or workstation on wheels (WOW).

Carts are usually named after the job they do.

A computer on wheels (COW) is a medical cart built around a computer, a display and input devices, used mainly for electronic patient records and charting at the bedside. A workstation on wheels (WOW) is the same idea. The two names are used interchangeably in USA and US hospitals, and some trusts prefer WOW because “COW” can sound unkind on a ward. You may also see medical computer cart, EMR cart or point-of-care cart.

Two designs are common. A powered COW carries a battery in the base and runs a compact PC and monitor through a shift without a wall socket. A non-powered COW carries a laptop or tablet on its own battery, which keeps the cart lighter but limits screen size and run time. Some carts replace the separate PC and monitor with a medical panel PC, a computer and touch screen in one sealed housing, which leaves fewer cables to clean around.

The computer on a COW does the same job as a desktop, but the cart changes what it needs:

The cart type decides the computer, display and power the cart has to carry.

Powered carts run the computer from a battery in the base, so staff do not have to find a socket at every bed. Batteries are usually sized for a full shift and many can be hot-swapped, so the cart never needs to go out of service to charge.

Any medical electrical equipment on a cart has to meet IEC 60601-1, the basic safety standard for medical electrical equipment. A cart that combines medical devices with ordinary IT equipment, such as a standard PC, is a medical electrical system under the standard, and the combination must meet the system requirements, not just each device on its own.

The key idea is the patient environment, which the standard treats as roughly 1.5 m around the patient. Within it, leakage currents have to stay within medical limits. That usually means powering the IT equipment through a medical isolation transformer or a medical grade power supply with the right level of protection, and choosing monitors and computers that already carry IEC 60601-1 approval where possible.

Infection control matters as much as electrical safety. Carts are wiped down between patients with alcohol, chlorine or peroxide disinfectants, so displays and computers need sealed fronts, often rated IP65, and housings that tolerate repeated cleaning without cracking or discolouring. Fanless, low-noise computers suit this well: there is no fan to pull in dust, and no noise at the bedside during night rounds.

Carts used for procedures often need video capture: the computer takes the feed from an endoscope or imaging device, shows it live on the cart display and records it to the patient record. Scope processors and surgical cameras typically output HDMI, SDI or DVI, so the computer needs video capture cards to match, with low latency so the live image stays in step with the instrument. Our guide to SDI capture for edge AI covers the capture side.

AI software can now analyze the same video in real time, for example to highlight polyps during a colonoscopy, which needs a GPU on the cart. The medical cart computer case study shows an AI endoscopy cart with HDMI and SDI capture. For displays, our medical grade monitors carry IEC 60601-1 approval, including surgical models with SDI inputs and loop-out.

We supply fanless computers, capture cards and medical grade monitors for cart builders as standard, with the capture drivers and operating system configured and each video input validated before the system ships.